Friday 26 June 2015 11:23, UK
Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga at a canter for the second successive season under Pep Guardiola last year, but there is room for improvement after their Champions League and German Cup disappointments.
The Bavarian giants wrapped up the title with four games to spare, but they were dumped out of the Champions League by Barcelona and knocked out of the German Cup by Borussia Dortmund as their form nosedived in the final weeks of the campaign.
Here, with the help of Sky Deutschland’s Bayern Munich reporter Uli Koehler, we look at what Guardiola needs to do to give his side a better chance of repeating their 2012/13 treble next season.
Keep his players fresh
“For the second year in the row, the whole team were really running out of steam. Against Real Madrid a year ago it was obvious, and this year the same thing happened.”
Those were Koehler’s thoughts on Bayern’s dip in form in the final weeks of the season, and you would be hard pushed to disagree. The German giants crashed to a 3-0 defeat the Nou Camp in this year’s Champions League semi-final, and last year they were hammered 4-0 at home to Real Madrid.
Their struggles have not been limited to European fixtures either. Bayern have steam-rolled their way through the first halves of each of the last two seasons under Guardiola – only for their form to form to decline dramatically at the business end of the campaign.
Bayern’s high-intensity style, their training methods and their relatively small squad are the main factors at play here. A host of Bayern’s key players have been injured over the last two seasons, and the club are overhauling their medical department after the sudden resignation of long-serving club doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt and his team in April.
Whether it is by altering how they prepare for games or by rotating more liberally in the opening months of the season, Guardiola simply must keep his players in top condition if Bayern are to go the distance both at home and in Europe.
Revamp central midfield
The long seasons are becoming particularly difficult for Bayern’s aging central midfielders Xabi Alonso, Phillip Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger, who have a combined age of 94. Fresh blood in that area should be a priority, especially with Sky sources reporting Manchester United are interested in signing Schweinsteiger.
“Alonso and Schweinsteiger are two great players but with an incredible lack of speed,” said Koehler. “They are great strategic players, but I think when they played together on the field it never worked out.
“I think a team like Bayern, or any team at the top level, cannot afford two slow players. Maybe one, OK, but if you have two of them in central midfield it is too dangerous. I don’t think they can afford that.”
The good news for Bayern is that Guardiola already has a solution at his fingertips. The 44-year-old famously said “Thiago or nothing” when asked about his plans to sign a midfielder in the summer of 2013, and Thiago Alcantara duly arrived on a four-year contract for 25million euros.
The Barcelona-schooled Spain international has been dogged by injuries since then, but Koehler expects him to play a crucial role next season. “He is the key player for Pep Guardiola,” he told Sky Sports.
“He was injured for a year, more or less, and then when he came back in March he had to play too many games. If he is out for about a year, you cannot expect a player to play at his top level for five, six or seven games in a row. But Thiago will be the key player next year.”
Thiago is still only 24 and as well as having youth on his side, he is technically superb, can unlock defences and has flair and skill in abundance. In his four Champions League appearances last season, he averaged more successful dribbles per game (2.8) than any other Bayern player.
Thiago’s Spain team-mate Javi Martinez could also play an important role after missing most of last season through injury, while 19-year-old Denmark international Pierre Hojbjerg and Germany Under-21 international Joshua Kimmich are also highly thought of.
Bring in a winger
Bayern also need strengthening on the flanks having struggled to cope with injuries to Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery last season. The duo, who are now 31 and 32 respectively, were greatly missed as they were spent the final months of the season on the sidelines.
Manchester United’s Angel Di Maria is Bayern’s No 1 target – but Sky sources insists the Red Devils have no intention of selling their £59.7million signing despite his difficult debut season in England.
“The constant message from United this summer has been that he is going nowhere,” said Sky Sports News HQ reporter James Cooper. “He is going to stay at Manchester United and be a big part of Louis van Gaal’s plans for next season.
“Our friends at Sky Deutschland have been talking about Bayern Munich being interested in Di Maria and even scouting him over at the Copa America. I don’t think they are the only club doing that, but United won’t budge on this and Di Maria won’t be going anywhere this summer.”
Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann is one alternative for Bayern. The France international has mostly featured through the middle since joining Atletico from Real Socieded last summer, scoring 25 goals in 46 appearances, but he can also operate in Ribery’s preferred left-wing spot.
Another solution could be Douglas Costa, and German radio station Sport1 have linked them with a 35million euro move for Shakhtar Donetsk attacking midfielder. The 24-year-old has eight caps for Brazil, who has previously talked up a possible move to Chelsea, and can either play from the right or in a central position.
Simplify the tactics
Guardiola is a tactical innovator and one of the modern era’s coaching visionaries, but his plans have backfired in a string of big games over the last two seasons.
Koehler feels the Spaniard is sometimes guilty of over-elaborating with his tactics, and he pinpoints their German Cup semi-final defeat to Dortmund as an example.
“He tries to do too much,” said Koehler. “A very good example is the semi-final in the cup against Borussia Dortmund. For 70-80 minutes they were dominating this game, but they didn’t score enough goals – they could have easily scored two, three or four more.
“Bayern was dominating and there was no reason to change anything, but he changed it and it worked out the other way around. The team lost their rhythm, Dortmund scored a goal and in extra time Bayern ran out of steam.”
Koehler added: “He thinks it’s great if they can play four or five different formations in one game. He stands on the sidelines waving his hands and changing everything. It’s a very good thing to be flexible, but in this case Bayern was dominating.”
The 3-0 defeat to Barcelona at the Nou Camp also springs to mind. Rather than trying to frustrate Barca with a defensive set-up that night, the Spaniard instructed his players to man-mark Barcelona all over the pitch. “Pep Guardiola has gone and shocked us all,” said Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville in the commentary box that night.
Barcelona tore into Bayern, who were lucky to be level at half-time before falling to a 3-0 defeat in the closing stages. While it was undoubtedly a brave tactical approach by Guardiola, Neville went on to describe it as “reckless”, Jamie Carragher went for “madness”, while Jamie Redknapp labelled it “footballing suicide”.
Guardiola soon abandoned his gung-ho approach that night, but Redknapp was unimpressed. “He’s one of the greatest managers of all time but I do think he’s tricking things up a little bit too much,” he said. “The players are bright players, World Cup winners, and they were probably thinking ‘why are we playing like this?’”
Recent history suggests Guardiola might be better off keeping things simple and curbing his attacking instincts in the big games in future.